Chinese gymnasts, girls may not be 16

[wildoak]

Womens all around was terrific - our two girls really rose to the occasion I thought.

The issue with the Chinese girls is primarily whether they are cheating, and competing with forged passports....government approved.

Secondary issue, what age they should be allowed to compete is another matter. Is the 16 year old requirement valid for all olympic sports? If so, they can't change it just for gymnastics. Otherwise I have no real issue with them competing a bit younger - I put two daughters through years of gymnastics and I know for the girls who do grow and mature at a fairly normal rate, they out grow the sport early.

Jan

 

[Sonya]

Free speech, democracy... and plenty of kids who get pushed through school so they can compete as athletes...

Sure that happens at times, kids who shouldn't be passing classes but do because the school/team/parent/whomever wants them to play on a team, it is unfortunate, but no where in the United States are children taken from their homes as toddlers and FORCED to be an athlete.

There will be no way to prove if the chinese gymnasts are of age or not...if they can "fake" a passport, then their govt will fake any document that shows their true age.....TIME

I do feel sorry for the chinese gymnasts, it is certainly not their fault, they are just children.

 

[horseplay]

I feel the same way as many that have posted. The rules are 16 in the year of the Olymics, I have no doubt that the Chinese have faked passports and what not, it is too bad for the countries that follow the rules. To me it has nothing to do with China getting a gold over the US, it has to do with what's right, and faking paperwork so certain girls can compete is cheating, no if, ands or buts about it. This says a lot about China or any country that would do this, but this is coming from a country who had a pretty little girl lip syncing at the opening ceremonies because the little girl who sang the song so beautifully wasn't "pretty" enough

, so nothing would shock me.

 

[Alex]

Wildoak- I thought the same to, 16 to compete etc. Well I heard announcers talking about a 15 year old swimmer in Beijing. Mabe its just gymnastics?

If a poor sport of a nation has to fake passports and get them accepted- the only feasable way to stop cheating, IMO, is to get rid of the age rule.

 

[minimomNC]

Isnt' that kind of like saying, to stop the cheating in measuring, we will just stop doing that. Just say what class you think your horse should be in and thats fine. Rules are in place for a reason, just because we don't like them shouldn't make it ok to break them.

 

[bingo]

Wildoak- I thought the same to, 16 to compete etc. Well I heard announcers talking about a 15 year old swimmer in Beijing. Mabe its just gymnastics?
If a poor sport of a nation has to fake passports and get them accepted- the only feasable way to stop cheating, IMO, is to get rid of the age rule.

As said before you can be 15 and follow the rules. The rules are you must turn 16 sometime in the year 2008 so if you have a birthday on Dec 20th you can still compete as a 15 year old at the time of the games.

If you are going to get rid of the rules to stop cheating you might as well get rid of laws to stop overcrowding in prisons.

 

[Jill]

Just think of what might happen in some countries (like China...) if there were no required age. Think of the long, hard, training hours that would be required of little children in order to be ready to compete. Sounds like it might already be the case

 

[Alex]

Oops, thanks bingo for correcting that.

The way I see it, if chinese girls are forced to start gymnastics at 3 and 4, by the time they are 12 and up, there gonna be good. If there so good to beat the whole country why not let them be on the team.I dont thing its age, its skill. Who knows, mabe other countries are thinking-That Dara Tores(sp) is wayy to old to be in the olympics! But hey shes an amazing, skilled swimmer.

JMO.

 

[Sonya]

The way I see it, if chinese girls are forced to start gymnastics at 3 and 4, by the time they are 12 and up, there gonna be good. If there so good to beat the whole country why not let them be on the team

Ethics....think about, are these girls old enough to make decisions on their own about whether to compete? Without influence? IMO they are not. To the Chinese this may not matter, but to others it does.

Who knows, mabe other countries are thinking-That Dara Tores(sp) is wayy to old to be in the olympics

You can't compare Tores being older as someone being younger, there is really no comparison here.

If the rule is 16, then the rule is 16...end of story.

 

[Bassett]

Wildoak- I thought the same to, 16 to compete etc. Well I heard announcers talking about a 15 year old swimmer in Beijing. Mabe its just gymnastics?

Elizabeth Beisel will turn 16 Monday August 18. Born in 1992. So it is if they turn 16 before the end of the year they are legal.